Center for Sex Positive Culture
The Center for Sex Positive Culture (formerly as the Wet Spot or CSPC) is a non-profit, membership-based organization located in Seattle, Washington. The Center provides space for volunteers to organize events promoting and celebrating sex-positive culture. Many different sex-positive subcultures are represented, notably asexual, BDSM, polyamory, queer community, and sex-positive groups. Because it is a community center in structure, and all events are organized by volunteers, it represents asexual, demisexual, heterosexual and LGBT people, as well as those with a nonbinary gender. The organization held its first event, a fundraiser, in March 1999.Allena Gabosch, We've come a long way, Director's blog on official site, July 19, 2007. Accessed online 15 October 2007. It is a nondescript 4400 square foot building Seattle's Interbay district. Membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 who has attended an orientation and agrees to the organization's rules of conduct. Those rules place an emphasis on consent, inclusiveness, and safety.http://thecspc.org/essential-house-rules/ There is also an annual membership fee. It is run by a Managing Director, a part-time Development Director and a part-time Facilities Manager. All other work is done by volunteers. Over 17,000 people have joined the Center since its inception, and active membership is approaching 3,000 members as of 2016.Interview with Managing Director, Jeanette Aprato, April 4, 2016 The space includes The including a wide variety of books on sexuality and kink, as well as several flavors of pornography. The Wet Spot The CSPC's primary location used to be known as the Wet Spot, in recognition of the space it came from. Prior to 1999, Development Director Allena Gabosch owned a cafe on Capitol Hill called "Beyond the Edge" (next to "Edge of the Circle" books). Its basement room provided space for sex positive groups and support groups to me, and it hosted weekly BDSM parties. When it closed, Allena Gabosch and a small group of dedicated regulars founded the community center now known as the Center for Sex Positive Culture, or "The Center". Organizational Structure and Mission The Center is a Washington State nonprofit 501©(7) and uses a "community center architecture".http://thecspc.org/faq/#Q1 A Board of Directors guides the conduct of the Center. Members are seated for three-year terms. The corporate structure includes a full-time Executive Director, a part-time Development Director and a part-time Facilities Manager. The Executive Officers, including a President, Secretary and Treasurer, each serve one year terms. The Center for Sex Positive Culture encourages the exploration and celebration of the many facets of human sexuality. Through an encompassing variety of events, created by and for its membership, the Center seeks to educate, to facilitate consensual open sexual expression and dialog, and to provide a venue for fellowship and community. Activities The Center hosts up to 35 events per month, varying to represent different sexual identities, gender identities, kinks and affinity groupshttp://thecspc.org/event-guide/. * BDSM socials and pansexual BDSM play parties. * Parties centered around dance, such a swing or blues fusion, or club. * Monthly homosexual focused men only nights and women only nights. * Asexual events. * Events for 18-35 year olds participating in the TNG Movement. * Monthly erotic massage nights. * Monthly bondage parties on Sundays. * Monthly Polyamory potluck. * Various discussion groups, classes, and workshops are hosted on site, administered primarily through the Foundation for Sex Positive Culturehttp://thefspc.org/ , which does outreach, education and arts for sex-positive culture. The same physical space is used in various configurations for different events. Some have only tables and chairs, other prominently feature dungeon equipment with an adjoining social area, plus private spaces for those who wish to avoid voyeurs. Annual events associated with the CSPC include: * The Seattle Erotic Art Festival, now administered by the Foundation for Sex Positive Culture. * Yearly holiday theme parties, including a large New Year's Eve bash. History The Wet Spot was founded in 1999 as the Seattle Sex Positive Community Center. Socially speaking, it is an outgrowth of Allena Gabosch's Beyond the Edge Cafe, which hosted BDSM related events. Several regulars of the cafe started discussing getting a dedicated space for their activities. One famously quoted "It would be great if we could get 200 members". In fact the idea became more popular than they envisioned - in its first year The Wet Spot registered about 2,000 members. In Sept 2007, they reached 10,000 registered members, although not all of them are current members. In 2007 the organization also changed its name to the Center for Sex Positive Culture and opened a second, "annex" building. In April of 2016, Managing Director Jeanette Aprato announced that the CSPC would be seeking new space to better accommodate the growing needs of the membership.http://thecspc.org/2016/04/04/update-from-our-managing-director/ References * * * External links *CSPC Homepage *Seattle Erotic Arts Festival Category:BDSM organizations Category:Organizations in the United States Category:Non-profit organizations based in Seattle, Washington Category:Massage Category:1999 establishments Category:Nonbinary gender Category:Asexuality Category:Polyamory